


Only This Moment meme

by ballpoint



Category: Marvel
Genre: 616 - Freeform, Gen, Meme, Ultimates - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2009-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-08 16:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballpoint/pseuds/ballpoint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A moment in the lives of various characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only This Moment meme

**Make Do And Mend** (Steve Rogers, 616, G)

It was not a job that he liked to do, but Steve knew duty. To country, to shield and to... self. Humming, he reached into his boot, and dragged out the offending specimen. A white tube sock. One of those socks, with the ends of threads waving around the hole, where his toe has poked through. They didn't make socks like they used to, they were a bit thinner now, and disposable. Not that Steve wanted to start the, "Back in my day," speech because he knew Peter would roll his eyes, and Jessica Jones would give him one of those smiles, as if she were humouring the crazy man.

He wasn't crazy, honest. Just... thrifty.

Steve threaded his needle, sat on the edge of the bed, just the way he liked it, with his sock in hand, and the light coming from the goosenecked lamp at the table beside him. He tugged his sock over his fist, and with needle in another hand, he threaded the needle through the tiny 'v's of the jersey stitch pattern of the socks, and drew on it, the thread dragging against his skin, while he tugged at the thread, made it taut.

It might not have been the best job, but it was worth doing well.

If he were as fast as he used to be, he would have this job finished by the time Jarvis rang for dinner.

**Time Is On My Side** (Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, Dr Strange) 616

Time is elastic.

It zigs, zags, turns corners.

Steve has travelled in its slipstream, hit on moments which make his heart bruise, his memories unearthed and raw. Now he's here. Not in the Stark Tower -nor on the baseball diamond where he and Tony last spoke, all tension and terseness - but here, in the hospital. Maria Hill is on the side of angels now, but their eyes avoid each other, and rest on the spaces above the head, by the ear.

He's directed down the passage, turn a tight left, and - he's here, in the hospital room. On the other side of the door, there is Donald Blake leaning heavily against his staff, and Dr Strange eyeing the patient in front of him.

The patient's back is to him, hair a bit shorter, on this side of spiky. Steve steps forward, pushes at the door, only to find his passage blocked by Strange.

"You shouldn't be here," Stephen's tones are so frigid, there might be snow flurries in the passageway. He looks different, clad in a sober coloured suit of granite, and a white shirt. The only shot of colour is the red of his tie, with golden brocade swirls. Strange's hair is longer, shaggier, but his eyes are still that grey that hints of frost and steel.

"I've been everywhere else, Stephen," Steve says, and it might have sounded a bit cryptic, if Stephen's frown is anything to go by.

"This is not a good time."

"Believe you me," Steve shakes his head, because God, he's oh so weary, and the world has changed, and time is still moving, catching him off guard. "There is never a good time."

Stephen's mouth is a grim line, and he would have said something if a hand didn't descend on his shoulder, and Steve recognises the long fingers with skinned knuckles.

"Stephen," the voice admonishes from behind the door. It sounds rough, as if neglected for a while, the words raspy from disuse. But it's familiar, to the point where Steve has to lock his knees so they don't buckle. Before Steve can do anything, say anything, the door opens.

"Come on in, you have to forgive Stephen he's a bit overprotective and -- _Steve_?"

Steve?

Time slows down here. Snap shots of first impressions. Of dark blue eyes that widen in surprise, a mouth lax from shock. Tony is different, a bit aged, the lines at the corners of his eyes and his forehead a tad deeper. His skin a bit lighter, there are smudges under his eyes. The last time they saw each other, Tony's features were a mask of agony, hate and disappointment, love and disillusionment. The stress and fractures of friendship tore their world apart that day, and Steve remembers hate, the acid how it spiked in his gut. His mind looping through the destruction, of his shield above a battered Tony, ready to crack his skull open. Ready to stop -

Steve

Tony's eyes are wide, shimmering with emotion and ... relief?

"God, Steve look at you," Tony says, before leaning in with a one armed hug and a tap to Steve's shoulder. "After Wanda... and the mansion. I- I heard Clint is alive, and -" Tony steps back, his hands on Steve's arms, and his face is lit with joy.

"Tony-"

"I am sorry about the mansion," Tony's eyes are sober now, and he opens the door, and Stephen steps out of the way. "Doctors Strange and Blake have been well, helping me to download my life," that self depreciating grin. That's something Tony does well. Almost as well as the man about town. "I took a knock back there, and just -"

Tony broke off and just beams. "It's a stroke of luck that you're here."

Steve remembers many things about Avengers disassembled. Of Thor going back home - and his eyes rest on Donald Blake. Kindly Doctor Blake, with mild eyes, and calm disposition. Dr Strange in civilian clothing. Steve sees his hands for the first time, with scars and welts across their backs and fingers. He stares at Stephen's arms, raises his eyes to Stephen, and nods. Stephen returns the nod, pushes his hands into the pockets of his slacks.

"It's... " Steve says, swallowing against the lump in his throat. He wants to scream - because there's still traces of anger there - of asking Tony what he was thinking. Of getting closure, or even putting the boot in by making Tony feel... God, he just wants Tony to feel as wretched as he had. When his guts were macramé, with exquisite knots of anger, and resentment and betrayal. But Tony's eyes are brimming with unfettered emotion, that turns Steve's anger into ashes in his mouth, and he might choke.

"God, Steve, say something," Tony says. "You must be in shock too, I think. We should work with Stephen here in terms of getting him to coral Wanda, and her chaos magic. We can regroup and --- where are my manners? Are you in a hurry, Steve?"

"No," Steve's answer is heartfelt. They will work through this, somehow. They always do, and when Tony and him finally get on the same page, they will have words. "No," he says again, "I have all the time in the world."

**The Odd Man Out ** Ultimates Steve, Ultimates Jan, Ultimates Gail and Bucky

"I haven't slept with him -- yet."

Jan's words were a slap across the face, as all her actions had been. A suckerpunch to the ego, another point of just not getting this world. Humiliation and anger were a spike to the gut, and because he was not Hank Pym, Steve jumped over the balcony, landed on the ledge below, trusting his body and instincts as Jan's words were a relentless tattoo in his mind. Of all the things - he treated her nice, wooed her like a dame should be wooed. He did the right things, didn't he? Introduced her to his friends, tried to make it right for her. He never rushed the sex bit, no, he waited until she held his hand, dragged him to the bedroom.

I want to do it in the dark, she'd said, and as he stroked her body, heard the drag of breath through her teeth, because he'd touched a still healing, still sensitive spot. Faltered, even stopped, and Jan smiled at him, even through the dim. Don't stop, just like this -. Then, when that was done, she stroked his cheek, and said, You're sweet. He thought - he thought they were making progress. Moving in together (before marriage), and okay, he might have had a problem in how revealing her clothing was but... Pym? She'd go back to Pym? After what Pym did to her?

Steve blinked away the burn from his eyes, clenched his jaw as he walked down the streets with cherry blossoms. It was spring, the air heavy with its smell and - ah man, the cars in front of the gate. Bucky's family, yeah, it was a Sunday and they normally came over for dinner. Probably he should -

"Hey, Steve, what are you doing here?" The door opened, and Bucky was there, a foot shorter, face weathered by time - and Steve still couldn't get over it - how familiar and foreign Bucky was.

"I-" Steve began.

"C'mon in, we have extra food, and Gail baked pie." Bucky grinned.

Steve attempted a smile, but knew that it fell flat when Bucky tilted his head. "On second thought," he said, "come to the back, I got beer. "

 

**The Simple Things**

The plate a deep red. Three shades darker than his cloak, framing a meal of macaroni and cheese, and string beans. Stephen narrowed his eyes at the meal, before spearing a clump of mac and cheese with the tines of his fork, and popping it into his mouth.

"What is wrong now, Stephen?"

"Hmm?" Stephen looked across the table to his companion. She was not in her uniform today, as much as jeans and an oversized sweater. A stark contrast to her tidy uniform with clean lines, but Linda had good enough bones and breeding to wear this casual outfit with the same flair as her work outfit.

"You gave the dinner a look," she raised her eyebrows as she speared a bean with her fork. "Is it not up to your standards?"

"It's... ordinary," Stephen smiled, and Linda shot him one of those looks, where he had better start explaining his position sharpish or else he would not be welcome to sample her individual... delights later on.

"I'm not a man suited for the ordinary," Stephen leaned forward, as he tried to explain. "I went to med school, became a surgeon, got wrenched from that career. Then Sorcerer Supreme and then..." he placed his hand over her wrist. "You," he finished. "You are - extraordinary, and yet we're here, in New York, eating macaroni and cheese and beans. It is a meal that does not hide from the fact that it is plain. Run of the mill, but...it's lovely," he finished. "We should do this more often."

Linda only shook her head and gave him of those smiles that made her eyes dance, and her mouth curve. She squeezed his hand, rubbed her thumb along his wrist. Her warmth settled around his shoulders like a cloak; her presence making the ordinary meal a particular delight. Stephen squeezed her hand in return.

"Stephen," Linda whispered in a tone of voice that made him think of sex and temptation.

"Linda?"

"Eat your beans."

**Star Spangled Banner** Ultimates Steve

It's been three hours and six days since Steve has been thawed. Everything is different: the taste of the water sharper, for one, and Steve pushes that to one side. Meat doesn't taste as much as corn as it used to, and drinks are entirely too sweet. Howie, Douglas, his parents - are gone, and the facts still hit him. He has extended family, Fury said, but Steve knows enough to know that to them, he'd be nothing but myth, a curio, so he leaves them be.

People speak differently too. At first, when he listens, it sounds like white noise, a sort of static before he tunes in, and focuses on the fact that yes, it is English they are speaking. From Thor's careful non accented tones, to Fury's deep, sharp orders, rounding off with Jan's quick West Coast flavoured words, and ending with Tony's _lah di dah_ twists in sentences.

Everything is different, and Steve is so struck the Buck Rogers _strangeness_ of it, that when he hears the wail and snarl of electric guitar, backed up by the steady beat of drums he pauses on the channel. Time stops, for want of a better word, as this black man with big hair wrings the notes of the Star Spangled Banner that makes the air tremble Steve can only mouth the words; when the last verse leaves his lips _and the land of the free, and the home... of the brave_...The strains of music wrap around his heart, hauls it to his throat, and Steve breaks.

Because.

Because, there's still America, and he's come back _home_.


End file.
